Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Service Units Support: After rising to spring's challenges, ESU 9 focuses on adaptability heading into fall

Service Units Support: After rising to spring's challenges, ESU 9 focuses on adaptability heading into fall

July 22, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren Adhering to the one-word action plan made famous by best-selling author Jon Gordon, Drew Harris’s selection last summer before his first year as ESU 9 Administrator ended up being not only remarkably fitting, but absolutely necessary. “My guiding word was opportunity , and I picked that at the start of the school year,” said Harris, who assumed his new role at the service unit...Read More

Service Units Support: For ESU 1, relationships led to efficient supports during closure

Service Units Support: For ESU 1, relationships led to efficient supports during closure

July 20, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren This story, of how a service unit in Northeast Nebraska coordinated services for its 23 school districts in the face of a pandemic that threw a school year in an unprecedented flux, starts with an old mask analogy. And, no, not that kind of mask. The airplane oxygen mask analogy. You’ve heard it from attendants on every single regional flight you’ve ever boarded. “Put your...Read More

Service Units Support: ESU 17 helps Northern Central Nebraska districts move forward in pandemic

Service Units Support: ESU 17 helps Northern Central Nebraska districts move forward in pandemic

July 10, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren Before joining a panel discussion centered around pandemic relief and held, like most everything these days, on Zoom, Geraldine Erickson, Patty Finney and Misty Wroblewski put together a bulleted list to help retrace their steps since early March. The list, which detailed the different types of support ESU 17 provided its five districts located in the northern central region of...Read More

Service Units Support: ESU 13 helps to keep the Panhandle connected during pandemic

Service Units Support: ESU 13 helps to keep the Panhandle connected during pandemic

July 6, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren After 22 years of efforts in attracting, training and mobilizing distance learning teachers, BJ Peters woke up one morning in mid-March and, voilà!, there they were. “I spent two decades trying to recruit distance learning teachers, and I had a thousand of them dropped into my lap all at once,” Peters says in half-jest. Peters was hired on at ESU 13 in the late 1990s after the...Read More

Operation Build a Fence: ESU 16, Community Construct Backyard with No Boundaries

Operation Build a Fence: ESU 16, Community Construct Backyard with No Boundaries

July 2, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren Nathan, like many nine-year-olds, isn’t one to spend his summers cooped up inside idling on neutral. He loves animals and playing under the sun. If given the chance, he’ll run, run, run until his legs give out. And then he’ll run some more. His personality is big, happy, and just plain fun. “He’s the kind of kid that just sparks a fire when you spend time with him,” said his mom...Read More

A New Level of Connectivity: ESU 16 proactive in service through pandemic's challenges

A New Level of Connectivity: ESU 16 proactive in service through pandemic's challenges

June 24, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren To be proactive or reactive? With COVID-19 cases spiking and spreading further west from Nebraska’s main metropolitan areas and east from Colorado’s, the answer was a no-brainer for ESU 16’s administrative team. “We were getting squeezed in the middle as the virus progressed,” said ESU 16 Administrator Deb Paulman. “It became apparent that we needed to reach out to our districts...Read More

Pandemic Efforts Lead to Summer Lunch Program at Raymond Central

Pandemic Efforts Lead to Summer Lunch Program at Raymond Central

June 22, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren At the end of each conversation Raymond Central superintendent Derrick Joel shared with his staff in the two weeks following his school district’s closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic lived an unwavering goal. “We had to find out what was going to work to support all of our families and all of our students,” said Joel, in his fourth year at RC. Through all of the collaboration...Read More

Toast of the Town: Bayard Seniors Receive a Special Send-Off

Toast of the Town: Bayard Seniors Receive a Special Send-Off

May 17, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren This isn't exactly the type of May the Class of 2020 had in mind. The last leg of the journey through high school is supposed to be spent together. Memories are supposed to be made in bunches. Standing on the final peak of a course that was surely filled with its share of ups-and-downs. "The situation with the pandemic and school closures has really heightened the fact that our...Read More

Class of 2020 Senior Spotlight: Pierce's Sydney Erickson

Class of 2020 Senior Spotlight: Pierce's Sydney Erickson

April 26, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren For all the places senior year has taken Sydney Erickson, from Capitol Hill to sunny southern California and Dallas, Texas, her high school days are winding down with a morning walk around a quiet lake in her hometown. While she misses the normalcy of school, her teachers and her friends and the building excitement around prom and graduation from Pierce High School, this walk is...Read More

When Opportunity Meets Preparedness: Digital Age Pedagogy Website Houses Emergency Remote Learning Resources

When Opportunity Meets Preparedness: Digital Age Pedagogy Website Houses Emergency Remote Learning Resources

April 23, 2020
By Tyler Dahlgren Born out of a BlendEd pilot program established by a committee comprised of the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council (ESUCC), professionals from select ESUs and the Nebraska Council of School Administrators (NCSA), the Digital Age Pedagogy site initially existed as a hub for resources illustrating best practices in blending online and offline instruction to enhance...Read More

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